Smoking during pregnancy

Unfortunately, in recent years, the ranks of smokers have been replenished by girls and women. Most likely, fashion is the main reason for this phenomenon. Young women have no idea what a heavy price to pay. A smoking woman is easy to recognize by her gray, wrinkled skin, unpleasant hoarse voice, and tobacco smell from her mouth. But these are only the external manifestations of poisoning of the body. Tobacco causes much more serious damage to a woman's internal organs, in particular her genital area. Women who smoke often have menstrual irregularities and develop various chronic diseases.

What is the danger of smoking during pregnancy?

It is especially necessary to warn the expectant mother. A woman, especially during pregnancy and breastfeeding, has no right to think only about herself. She is, first of all, responsible for the child. A pregnant woman must firmly know: after each cigarette smoked, a fair share of harmful substances will go to him, and therefore, she is putting not only herself, but also the child at risk.
There is evidence that nicotine has a direct toxic effect on the autonomic sympathetic nervous system of the fetus, which is responsible, in particular, for the heart rate. Just one cigarette smoked by a pregnant woman accelerates the heart rate of the fetus and depresses its breathing. And if a pregnant woman smokes 15-25 cigarettes daily throughout her pregnancy, serious changes in the cardiac activity of the unborn child occur.
The connection between the fetus and the mother's body is carried out through the placenta, which performs respiratory, excretory and many other vital functions. Through the placenta, nutrients and oxygen necessary for the fetus's growth and development pass into the fetus' blood. Metabolic products are also removed through it. With selective permeability, the placenta freely passes what it needs and holds back what is harmful. However, this ability has its limits.
Nicotine, as experiments have shown, penetrates the placental barrier very quickly and is found in the tissues and organs of the fetus within 5 minutes. Moreover, the developing fetus finds itself in more harmful conditions than the mother. Research has shown that when a pregnant woman smokes, about 18% of nicotine enters the fetus's body every minute, and only about 10% is excreted. As a result, nicotine accumulates in the fetus's blood. Its level becomes higher than in the mother's blood.
Nicotine also gets to the fetus from the amniotic fluid. In pregnant women who limit themselves to just two or three cigarettes a day, nicotine is still found in the amniotic fluid. Two or three cigarettes smoked can also contribute to the narrowing of the blood vessels of the uterus and placenta. Therefore, within 5 seconds of inhaling tobacco smoke, the uteroplacental circulation and contractile function of the uterus are disrupted, and the supply of nutrients and oxygen to the fetus is limited.
All this can lead to miscarriages and premature births, and to the death of the fetus and newborn from oxygen deficiency. The risk of bleeding during pregnancy, placental abruption, and premature rupture of the membranes increases.
When smoking during pregnancy, a large amount of carbon monoxide enters the blood of the expectant mother, which forms a dangerous compound called carboxyhemoglobin with the hemoglobin in the blood. If a pregnant woman smokes from 10 to 40 cigarettes a day, the level of carboxyhemoglobin in her blood increases from 1 to 8%, and in the blood of the fetus it becomes twice as high. Under these conditions, the mother's blood delivers oxygen to the tissues of the fetus worse. It literally begins to suffocateIt has been proven that the simultaneous exposure of a pregnant woman to nicotine, carbon monoxide and other main components of tobacco smoke leads to chronic hypoxia (oxygen starvation) of the fetus and increases the risk of sudden death of the newborn by more than 50%.
It is enough for a pregnant woman to smoke 12-13 cigarettes a day from the first days of pregnancy for the child to be born with an extremely low body weight. Its decrease directly depends on the number of cigarettes smoked.
A weakened child born with a low body weight is less able to resist any adverse effects. Newborn children of smoking mothers get sick more often than children of non-smoking mothers. It is estimated that the probability of getting sick in the first days of life is 28% higher. And later they are more susceptible to respiratory infections, bronchitis, pneumonia.
Smoking during pregnancy has shown: according to English pediatricians from the Bristol Children's Hospital, 1,500 children were born unviable only because their mothers did not deprive themselves of the pleasure and did not stop smoking during pregnancy. Every puff that the expectant mother takes is an acute discomfort for the fetus. And when it is repeated often, the risk of giving birth to a sick child increases.
Smoking is also extremely unacceptable for a nursing mother. One liter of breast milk can contain 0.5 milligrams of nicotine, while the lethal dose of this strong poison is 1 milligram per 1 kilogram of the child's weight. Children often refuse to breastfeed a smoking mother, which means they are undernourished, sleep poorly, are capricious, and their bowel function may be upset. Such babies are usually weak and develop poorly. They are more susceptible to colds.